WORKING the floor

Automated data-capture technologies can obtain, validate, and process time, labor, and other information for improved productivity and efficiency in aerospace manufacturing.

Over the last two decades, the deregulation of the commercial airline industry, rising military procurement costs, and declining military sales have combined to shake up the world of aerospace manufacturing. Low margins, production delays on new aircraft, and poor returns on investment signaled the need to implement dramatic improvements in manufacturing efficiencies.

A key early milestone in addressing this challenge was the formation of the Lean Aerospace Initiative (LAI) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1993 to begin applying the principals of “lean manufacturing” to the aerospace industry. Lean manufacturing in North America was launched by James Womack, Daniel Jones, Daniel Roos, and others at MIT through the International Motor Vehicle Program (IMVP), a five-year, $5 million research project directed at identifying production factors leading to success in the global automobile manufacturing industry.